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The Worcester Sharks got career high three point nights from both Eriah Hayes and Ryan Carpenter and a solid 26 save performance from goaltender Aaron Dell Saturday night at the DCU Center to defeat the Providence Bruins 3-2 during “Pink in the Rink” night in front of 7,760 fans. The win made the WorSharks 10-3-1 in the month if January for 21 points out of a possible 28 for the month.

Worcester Sharks forward Eriah Hayes (hands raised) begins to celebrate his first
period goal Saturday night as the Providence Bruins take exception to his play
in front of their net. The WorSharks would go on to win 3-2.
Photo courtesy CHRISTINE HOCHKEPPEL/T&G Staff

For video highlights we’ll use the Worcester Sharks YouTube channel.

Scratches for the WorSharks were Jimmy Bonneau, Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), and Troy Grosenick (ill). J.P. Anderson was the backup goaltender. Worcester may unfortunately have another player hitting the injury list as rookie forward Jeremy Langlois did not play in the third period after crashing hard into the boards to the left of Providence goaltender Niklas Svedberg in the second period.

Worcester’s goaltending depth chart is pretty much set in stone with Grosenick being the clear number one and Anderson being his back-up, but every time Dell gets recalled from the Allen Americans (ECHL) he’s shown he’s a solid goaltender that should get a shot full time in the AHL, be it with in the San Jose organization or not, next season. Dell’s goals against average is nearly a full goal better than both the regular goalies and his save percentage is noticeably better too. Granted the sample size isn’t that large, but Dell’s numbers with Abbotsford last season were equally as good as this season.

We can put the bed the record for the latest overtime goal in the AHL using the new seven minute format as Lake Erie Monsters center Ben Street scored a penalty shot goal after the final horn sounded to defeat the Oklahoma City Barons 2-1. Officially listed as “7:00″ of OT it’s a record that cannot be broken in the current format, and considering how rare the circumstances of his goal are it’s unlikely it will ever be tied either.

The Worcester Sharks came out of the AHL’s All-Star break exactly how a team would want to, with a goal on their first shot. Unfortunately for the WorSharks it was downhill for much of the rest of the game and a late two goal spurt at the end of the third period wasn’t enough as Worcester dropped a 5-4 contest to the Providence Bruins Friday night at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. Jeremy Langlois had two goals in the losing effort with Taylor Fedun assisting on both goals.

Worcester Sharks rookie Jeremy Langlois notched his team leading 15th and 16th goals
Friday night against Providence in a 5-4 loss to the Bruins. Langlois also leads the
WorSharks in points with 26. File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we’ll point to AHLlive.com. Video packages like this, when compared to those of other AHL teams, show what a little effort can do. The PBruins should be embarrassed about this.

Scratches for the WorSharks were Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), Troy Grosenick (ill), and the recently recalled defenseman from Ontario (ECHL) Kyle Bigos. Daniil Tarasov was recalled to San Jose earlier in the week so Worcester doesn’t have any healthy scratched forwards. Word from Worcester Telegram reporter Bill Ballou of Grosenick’s illness doesn’t seen good as apparently doctors can’t figure out what’s wrong with the second year goaltender.

The WorSharks have historically had issues coming out of the all-star break, but with the team having good luck so far against Providence this season it appeared that Worcester might have a chance to get out of the gate a little quicker than past seasons. That was until the Boston Bruins decided to send Niklas Svedberg to the AHL for a brief conditioning stint. Entering the game Svedberg’s AHL record was a very impressive 62-23-6, and with the win he’s now 30 games over .500 in his minor league career. No word as of post time if Svedberg plays tonight when the teams meet again at the DCU Center.

The was one fight in the game, and with Jimmy Bonneau in the lineup for the first time in over a week one would think it wouldn’t take too long for the fan favorite to jump back into action. You’d have thought wrong as it was Travis Oleksuk dropping the gloves for the first time in his 170 game pro career when he took on PBruins defenseman Ben Youds after Youds had taken down Micheal Haley. It was more than a hugfest than anything else, but the boxscore says “fighting” so Oleksuk can now add that check mark to his pro résumé.

While this writer has decided to not cover the now official move of the Worcester Sharks to California on this blog and instead keeping the focus on just the hockey portion of the story, over on 210Sports I’ve written a couple stories that look more at the fan’s side of things as opposed to the straight news facts of the WorSharks leaving. For those interested you can check out Sportsmanship wins every time and AHL’s western move bad news for some, worse news for others.

The Worcester Sharks iced their best team in a long time Friday night at the DCU Center against the Albany Devils but a slow start eventually put them down three goals, a deficit that proved too much to overcome as the WorSharks lost 3-2 to end their franchise record eight game winning streak. On Saturday afternoon the two squads again faced each other again, this time at the Times Union Center in Albany, and it was Worcester that had the last laugh as Dylan DeMelo connected at 4:04 of overtime for a 2-1 WorSharks victory.

Worcester Sharks forward Chris Tierney continued his hot streak for the
WorSharks with assists in both games over the weekend. Tierney now has
seven goals and sixteen assists in 24 games with Worcester.
Photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we’ll use both team’s YouTube channels.

Worcester Sharks head coach Roy Sommer went with the same lineup both nights as Konrad Abeltshauser, Jimmy Bonneau, Ryan Carpenter, Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), Troy Grosenick (flu), and Eriah Hayes were all scratches. Aaron Dell was the back-up both nights.

Saturday’s overtime saw a couple of “firsts” as goaltender J.P Anderson took over sole possession of the WorSharks and city pro record for wins by a right catching goaltender with six and Dylan DeMelo became the first player since Ryan Vesce in 2008-2009 to have multiple overtime goals in the same season. DeMelo is only half way to Vesce’s franchise record of four in the regular season. Vesce also had one in the playoffs that season. In one of those head scratching stats, the only two players to record overtime goal for the Worcester Sharks in multiple season are John McCarthy and Nick Petrecki. Yes, that Nick Petrecki, who only had eight goals in 277 games and managed to grab two of them in overtime.

In the first period of Friday’s game WorSharks captain Bryan Lerg was hit with an intentional elbow by a Devils player that went unpenalized. The incident went unnoticed by most, but not by the video, which has been sent to the AHL for review. In warm-ups Saturday Worcester enforcer Jimmy Bonneau voiced his displeasure as all 40 players got together with some pushing and shoving, but eventually calmer heads prevailed. Bonneau had a loud comment to WorSharks assistant coach Ryan Mougenel on the incident, but this being a family blog we won’t post what he said. It was classic Bonneau, however, and drew some laughs from the fans watching warm-ups along the glass.

The automatic delay of game minor is one of this writer’s pet peeves, it being one of the least needed rules of the game. The only thing worse is when it’s called incorrectly, and that happened two times on Saturday and both against Albany. In the first period Devils defenseman Mike Keenan was sent off for flipping the puck out of playing area in his defensive end, only it was clear that it hit the top of the glass and toppled over. In the third Albany defenseman Seth Helgeson winged one out of play by a good five feet, but the linesman said it was deflected, which is clearly was not.

On Wednesday the Worcester Sharks found themselves in a familiar position after two periods in Portland: outshooting the Pirates but behind on the scoreboard. It seemed like the WorSharks were destined for another heartbreaking loss at the recently renamed Cross Insurance Arena when rookie forward Jeremy Langlois pulled off the rare natural hat trick to give Worcester a shocking 3-2 win over the Pirates and extend the WorSharks winning streak to a franchise record eight games. Evan Trupp assisted on all three goals while goaltender J.P. Anderson has 16 saves in the winning effort.

Due to a sudden illness to Worcester Sharks scheduled starter Troy Grosenick rookie J.P. Anderson
got the call for Wednesday's game in Portland, and with no other back-up goaltender available
WorSharks tough-guy and fan favorite Jimmy Bonneau served as the emergency goaltender.
Photo courtesy of THE AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE

Scratches for Worcester were Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), Troy Grosenick (ill), and Nick Jones. With Grosenick taking ill while the team was in Portland and rookie J.P. Anderson the only other goaltender on the roster WorSharks tough-guy and fan favorite Jimmy Bonneau served as the emergency goaltender. Bonneau wore Grosenick’s gear and was wearing the #1 jersey. There are several pictures of him on twitter and he has an ear to ear grin in all of them.

Since Sunday there has been a bucket load of transactions for Worcester. On Tuesday PTO forward Greger Hanson was released and returned to the Allen Americans (ECHL) while defenseman Mirco Mueller was assigned to the WorSharks on a conditioning loan. Mueller played in the game Wednesday. Dylan DeMelo also received his first NHL recall and was a healthy scratch for San Jose’s 4-2 win over the LA Kings Wednesday night. On Thursday Worcester PR man Eric Lindquist got quite the workout with all the comings and goings as DeMelo was assigned back to the WorSharks, along with Tomas Hertl and Barclay Goodrow, for the NHL’s All Star break. With the extra defensemen around Worcester reassigned Jones to the Indy Fuel (ECHL), although it’s a safe bet he’ll be back at some point next week. The WorSharks also recalled goaltender Aaron Dell from Allen, likely looking to give Grosenick a few days to recover from his illness.

With all the reports coming out on the WorSharks likely move to the west coast this writer will once again point out that we’re going to stick with just the hockey side of things here and let the chips fall where they may in other areas. No matter what happens it will be business as usual here on Sharkspage.

With the win Anderson ties Nolan Schaefer for the WorSharks and all-time Worcester pro hockey record for wins by a right-catching goalie with five. In case you were wondering, number three on that list is the IceCats Alex Westlund with, well, none. Presuming Anderson gets one more win the next record for him will be Schaefer’s minutes plated by a right-catching goaltender at 921:28. Anderson is over three full games behind that right now. Once again Westlund is third on that list with 7:35 during a relief appearance of Brent Johnson.

The Worcester Sharks got two goals from Chris Tierney and single strikes from Matt Taormina and Taylor Doherty, and along with 29 saves from goaltender J.P. Anderson defeated the Manchester Monarchs 4-3 Sunday afternoon at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester New Hampshire for their third win in six days over the AHL’s Atlantic Division leaders. The win makes seven in a row and points in the last eight for the WorSharks, both tying franchise records.

Worcester Sharks forward Chris Tierney with the first of his two goals in
Sunday afternoon's contest as his backhander beats Manchester Monarchs
goaltender Patrik Bartosak midway through the first period.
SHARKSPAGE photo via video capture

For video highlights we’ll use the Manchester Monarchs YouTube channel.

Worcester almost had a fifth goal by just inches, only instead of the puck not crossing the goal line it was a player not clearing the offensive zone. Konrad Abeltshauser wristed a puck that bounced along the ice from about 75 feet out that fooled Manchester Monarchs goaltender Patrik Bartosak as the puck hit off the post and into the net. Freddie Hamilton was offside by less than a stride as he failed to clear the zone and the goal was disallowed.

In the other direction, Manchester had a goal that was waved off counted after video replay. After a brief goalmouth scramble the net behind Anderson came off the pegs and with the puck in the space vacated by the net referee Jonathan Alarie immediately signaled ‘no goal’, but then indicated that the officials would go to video replay. In an oddity the other referee, David Banfield, looked at the video instead of Alarie, and after a few moments signaled the goal was good.

The silliness of “if the playoffs started today…” has begun in Worcester as the WorSharks have jumped into the top eight of the AHL’s Eastern Conference. Right now their 45 points is good for seventh, but there are three teams just a single point behind them at 44. The WorSharks do have the advantage of having at least a game in hand against all the team immediately around them, and can give themselves some breathing room against the team currently listed in the eighth spot, the Albany Devils, as the two squads play a home and home on Friday and Saturday. They can also creep into sixth place on Wednesday night with a regulation victory over the Pirates in Portland.

File this under “We didn’t think this one through”. On Saturday night as the Monarchs celebrated “Los Angeles Kings” night Manchester wore purple and gold jerseys based on Los Angeles’ sweaters from the 1980s that featured the Kings’ original crown logo on the front. On that night the Monarchs played the Providence Bruins, who wear a black and gold jersey. With both teams having gold on the shoulders it was apparently difficult for players to quickly determine who was on what team. Manchester switched to their home whites for the final two periods.

The Worcester Sharks scored three first period goals with Daniil Tarasov, Freddie Hamilton, and captain Bryan Lerg all connecting in the opening twenty minutes, and a second period tally by defenseman Taylor Fedun was just icing on the cake as goaltender Troy Grosenick went a perfect 25 for 25 on shots against to register his first shutout of the season in the WorSharks 4-0 victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Saturday night at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts in front of 5,132 fans.

Worcester Sharks goaltender Troy Grosenick had 25 saves in his first shutout of the season
in Saturday's 4-0 WorSharks win over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. It was Grosenick's third career
AHL shutout. Grosenick also has an NHL shutout over the Carolina Hurricanes this season.
Photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we’ll once again point to the Worcester Sharks YouTube channel.

Scratches for the WorSharks were Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), Greger Hanson, Nick Jones, and Eriah Hayes (shoulder). J.P. Anderson was the back-up goaltender. The plan was for Anderson to start Sunday afternoon in Manchester, but head coach Roy Sommer might be having second thoughts with Grosenick posting a shutout last night and having a great weekend so far.

With the win Saturday night Worcester went a perfect five for five on their home stand, the first time that’s ever happened in franchise history. It’s also the first time the WorSharks have ever had five wins in any home stand no matter how many games it was. Their six game winning streak ties for the second longest, having done it now three times, the latest being from March 7th to the 16th last season. The Worcester Sharks longest winning streak is seven games set in the franchise’s first season, from March 16th to the 31st. This writer had the WorSharks franchise record point streak as nine games, but this morning we’ll make a quick edit to mention Bill Ballou has in the T&G the record as being eight games. We’ll doff our cap to Ballou and go with his eight.

In a stat teased last night on twitter, with Grosenick’s shutout last night for the first time in WorSharks franchise history they’ve had a season with three different goaltenders registering shutouts. You’d likely have made a fortune in Las Vegas had you wagered on that happening and then parlayed that bet into the correct order of it taking place as Aaron Dell–generally of the ECHL’s Allen Americans this season–had the first one in St John’s with a 1-0 win on December 5th. Usual back-up Anderson followed suit a few days later with a 1-0 victory of his own on December 14th vs Portland. The Worcester IceCats also did it just once in their 11 seasons, in 1996-97, when Mike Buzak, Jamie McLennan, and Travis Scott all recorded shutouts that season. Grosenick’s personal six game winning streak is one short of the franchise record of seven, held by Thomas Greiss and Al Stalock.

Prior to the game there was the standard gathering of the minds, such as they are, on the concourse behind the press row area. As he occasionally does Sharkspage minion Tyler Lowell joined the group, although this time with a broken stick belonging to Hamilton that was broken in warm-ups. That brought back the age-old discussion that with the new composite sticks breaking fairly often penalty killers would be best served using wood sticks. The lines are well drawn in our argument on the subject, but perhaps now all will be on my side of the issue after a second period WorSharks penalty kill saw three players end up without sticks. First Taylor Doherty broke his stick blocking a shot, so John McCarthy passed his stick back to Doherty. Within a few seconds Doherty broke that one too. After a pile-up in front of Grosenick he ended up without a stick, only Doherty, now camped in front of the net, didn’t have one to give him. Somehow Worcester was still able to clear the puck.

If you looked at the score sheets you’d think Tarasov was having just an “OK” week. In three games he has a couple goals, is about close to “even”, and has just a handful of shots. If you watched the actual games you’d have seen a completely different player out there. Tarasov is playing like a guy that has finally figured out what he needs to do to get a shot at playing in the NHL and is doing it. His play on both ends of the ice has been fantastic over the last three games, with about the only thing he hasn’t done is get into a fight yet. With the WorSharks playing Manchester Sunday for the third time in a week a fight is certainly a possibility for the suddenly very feisty Tarasov.

The Worcester Sharks entered this week having lost ten of the previous eleven matchups with the Manchester Monarchs, but after a shocking 3-1 win Tuesday over their rivals from New Hampshire the WorSharks did it again Friday in a 5-4 shootout victory over the Monarchs at the DCU Center. Jeremy Langlois and Taylor Fedun had multiple point nights for Worcester, while captain Bryan Lerg had the only tally in the shootout. The two teams play again Sunday in Manchester.

Worcester Sharks rookie forward Chris Tierney was falling to the ice but still
managed to rip off a wrist shot that beat Manchester goaltender J.F. Berube to
tie the game 2-2. The WorSharks would go on to win 5-4 in a shootout.
Photo courtesy STEVE LANAVA/T&G Staff

For video highlights of Friday’s game we’ll use the WorSharks YouTube channel.

Worcester went with the same lineup both Tuesday and Friday, with Jimmy Bonneau, Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), Greger Hanson, and Eriah Hayes (shoulder) all scratched and J.P. Anderson the backup goaltender. There was one lineup change due to an AHL trade that saw forward Adam Burish being loaned to the Chicago Wolves by the San Jose Sharks and the St. Louis Blues assigning old friend John McCarthy to the WorSharks. While there have been a handful of minor league players to have multiple stints with Worcester, McCarthy becomes just the second player to leave the WorSharks to sign with another NHL organization only to eventually return to the Worcester roster. The first was Derek Joslin, who was reacquired after he signed with the Vancouver Canucks and spent the majority of the season with, ironically enough, the Chicago Wolves. Worcester also had another transaction in the week, releasing Riley Brace from his PTO.

One of this writer’s pet peeves is when the official far away from the action calls a penalty that the near referee has a great view of and doesn’t make. If the referee 30 feet away looking right at the play doesn’t call something, why does the referee 100 feet or more away think he has a better angle? That happed twice Friday night, and both cost the WorSharks a power play. In the first period Manchester defenseman Derek Forbort tackled Chris Tierney from behind in a move that looked like a linebacker taking down a running back. Referee Jon McIsaac’s hand went right up and the whistle blew as the Monarchs had possession of the puck, but from almost 100 feet away referee Cameron Voss called Tierney for a dive, despite Forbort being on top of Tierney. Later it was McIsaac’s turn, who called Daniil Tarasov for diving after he was blown out by a Forbort crosscheck while Worcester had a man advantage. To make matters worse, the crosscheck went uncalled.

To continue on about not being happy with the officiating, Manchester’s Josh Gratton was assessed two minors. His first was in the second period for unsportsmanlike conduct after a play was blown dead, and watching the video it’s not obvious what he did to deserve it. For the most part he was skating toward the bench for a line change by himself. His second was in the third period for goaltender interference, and despite him crashing into Grosenick it looked like a good hockey play from everyone involved. That penalty resulted in Taylor Fedun’s goal that gave the WorSharks a 4-3 lead.

Due to the craziness of the AHL scheduling Friday night was the last visit from the Monarchs to the DCU Center for the regular season. Worcester went 2-3-1 in the six games. They teams still play four more times in New Hampshire, starting with Sunday’s 3pm EST contest.

Local legend Rene Rancourt sang the national anthem prior to the game. Rancourt, who is the usual anthem singer for the Boston Bruins and for a variety of events around New England, also signed autographs during the game and fans around these parts still line up to greet him.

The Worcester Sharks in recent seasons have found a variety of ways to win games, but on Saturday night at the DCU Center against the Providence Bruins after the WorSharks came back from three different one-goal deficits for the first time in franchise history the Worcester Sharks used an overtime penalty shot goal, by captain Bryan Lerg, to gain two points as they defeated their route 146 rivals 4-3 in overtime. Dylan DeMelo, Willie Coetzee, and Daniil Tarasov had the regulation goals for the WorSharks while goaltender Troy Grosenick contributed 26 saves in the winning effort. Worcester is now 6-0-0-0 against Providence this season, and has seven wins in a row against them dating back to last season.

Worcester Sharks captain Bryan Lerg became the first WorSharks player to score an
overtime penalty shot goal. It was the first in the AHL since Doug Janik had one
for the Grand Rapids Griffins on April 10, 2012. File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we’ll once again use the WorSharks YouTube channel

Worcester head coach Roy Sommer went with the same line-up as he used against Binghamton Friday night, with Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), Micheal Haley (sick), Eriah Hayes (shoulder), and Nick Jones all scratches. J.P. Anderson was the back-up goaltender.

As you can tell by the video that Providence goaltender Jeremy Smith disagreed with referee Olivier Gouin calling for a penalty shot after determining PBruins defenseman Chris Casto covered the puck in the crease. Turns out Smith may have been right, because according to some fans sitting behind the net it was indeed a bad call because the reason Casto had his hand over the puck was he was pulling it out of the net. Lerg’s post-game comments to WorSharks beat reporter Bill Ballou of the T&G echo that point as he said “I was smothered in the crease, and I thought the puck was in, but one of their guys pulled it out of the net with his hand.”

Some penalty shot facts for the WorSharks: Lerg became the first Worcester Sharks player to have two attempts in a row, his first being earlier this season against Kristers Gudlevskis in Syracuse where Lerg did not score. Lerg joins Brandon Mashinter as the only Worcester Sharks player with two penalty shot attempts for the team. Mashinter missed both his attempts. It wasn’t the first OT penalty shot for the WorSharks, Michael Connelly had one against Springfield’s Manny Legace 11/16/2011 on November 16th, 2011. Obviously Connelly didn’t score on that one. Lerg’s goal makes the franchise 5-15 in penalty shot attempts all-time.

In the house last night was ESPN personality John Buccigross, who appeared and signed autographs as part of the “#bucciovertimechallenge” bobblehead giveaway. This writer had a brief conversation where I asked if it was his first bobblehead. He laughed and replied “and likely last”. I then mentioned he needed another so he could use them as bookends, which drew more laughs from him. After signing autographs, which included a short break for a ceremonial puck drop, Buccigross the spent the rest of the game in one of the luxury boxes and tweeted out several pictures as we had “An in person @TheAHL #BucciOvertimeChallenge”. Buccigross gave Lerg some “swag” for scoring in OT and tweeted out “Find video of @BLerg11 penalty shot/OT winner for @WorcesterSharks. It was pure filth. 50 miles of dangles-backhand-thin mints-pot sticker”. There’s no need to find video, just scroll up to the highlight.

The Sharkspage player of the game is usually not one of the top two starts as we like to shine a little light on someone that didn’t get noticed enough, but seriously, how is it not Lerg for Saturday night.

The Worcester Sharks scored three power play goals at home for the first time on almost two years, and with a four point night from forward Willie Coetzee and three from defenseman Konrad Abeltshauser the WorSharks defeated the Binghamton Senators 6-3 Friday night at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts to sweep their two game season series. Dylan DeMelo and Daniil Tarasov had two points apiece and Troy Grosenick had 26 saves in the winning effort.

Newcomer Willie Coetzee continues to light it up for the Worcester Sharks. Since his
arrival just after Christmas the South African native has three goals and eight
points in seven games with the WorSharks. File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we’ll once again use the Worcester Sharks YouTube channel.

Scratches for the WorSharks were Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), Micheal Haley (sick), Eriah Hayes (shoulder), and Nick Jones. J.P. Anderson was the back-up goaltender. Hayes hurt his shoulder on a hard check by Providence defenseman Chris Breen in the first period of their game last Sunday, and pregame Friday there was no word as to how seriously Hayes was injured. With Taylor Doherty off the injured list defenseman Andrew Blazek was released from his PTO and he reported to the South Carolina Stingrays (ECHL), who acquired Blazek’s player rights in a trade with the Cincinnati Cyclones while Blazek was with Worcester.

It looked at several points in the game that it was going to explode, and if the WorSharks roster had looked like many years past the game absolutely would have gotten out of hand. At different points in the contest Riley Brace, Ryan Carpenter, and Tarasov were slow to get up off questionable hits from Senators players. In the middle of the third period Binghamton winger Buddy Robinson jacked up Andrew Burish in the slot as Burish went for a loose puck, and while on the ice Burish ‘took a number’. With about 30 seconds left in the game and the contest well in hand Burish found his number and blasted Robinson with an NHL-quality cross check. In the ensuing fracas it was, of all people, Jimmy Bonneau trying to play peacemaker. After the Senators Darren Kramer took a few swipes at Burish, who was being held by a linesman, Burish decided he needed some reach and speared Kramer. Burish ended up being called for a rare triple minor.

Speaking of Binghamton’s Kramer, he entered Friday night’s contest with 11 fights on the season, which was the total number of fights the entire Worcester lineup had so far in 2014-15. Kramer finished just short of a Gordie Howe hat trick, missing, of all things, a fight. A quick scan of AHL and ECHL player records shows he hasn’t had one as a pro. It does appear he had at least a couple with the Spokane Chiefs (WHL).

The AHL announced its lineups for the All-Star Classic and Matt Taormina is Worcester’s lone player representative. It’s Taormina’s second AHL All-Star selection but, presuming he plays, it will be his fist one played. He was chosen for the 2012 game at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J when he was with Albany, but a recall to the New Jersey Devils prevented him from playing. WorSharks head coach Roy Sommer was previously named as the Eastern Conference assistant coach.

Every year we like to take a look where former Worcester Sharks are playing across pro hockey. Below is a list every former player for the WorSharks no longer in the San Jose organization and where they are playing this season. The teams that are listed are generally the highest level a player had played this season, and if the player is in the NHL that’s been placed in bold. Back-up goaltenders and other players that were signed but did not appear in games are not listed. Obviously, if a player isn’t listed it means he isn’t currently playing in pro hockey. This list is current as of a few days ago.

If the Worcester Sharks could play the Providence Bruins every game not only would the ticket sales people at the WorSharks have a much easier job but at least this season Worcester would potentially be a lot higher in the AHL’s Atlantic Division standings after the WorSharks improved to 5-0-0 vs their route 146 rivals with a 3-1 victory over the PBruins Sunday afternoon at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. Riley Brace, Jeremy Langlois, and Chris Tierney had the goals for Worcester while goaltender Troy Grosenick had 34 saves.

Worcester Sharks defenseman Taylor Fedun had two assists in the WorSharks
3-1 victory over the Providence Bruins. File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For highlights we’re going to point to SendToNews.com. Embedding causes the highlights to autoplay, so we’ll use a link instead.

Scratches for the WorSharks were Andrew Blazek, Adam Burish (banged up), Taylor Doherty (hand), Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), and Freddie Hamilton. After the hard-luck loss Saturday J.P. Anderson was once again in his usual role as back-up goaltender. Hamilton was a healthy scratch due to a potential recall after San Jose forward Joe Thornton was placed in injured reserve. If it happens it will likely be a short recall for Hamilton as Thornton would be eligible to return to action on January 7th. Micheal Haley is already on his way back to Worcester from San Jose and should be in the line-up on Friday.

WorSharks trainer Matt White was a busy man for a few minutes during the first period, having to tend to Worcester captain Bryan Lerg after he was taken hard into the boards by PBruins forward David Pastrnak. While Lerg was receiving treatment on the bench Eriah Hayes was injured on a hard check by Providence defenseman Chris Breen. Lerg eventually retuned to action but Hayes left the game with a shoulder injury after attempting to play one more shift. There was no word on his condition post-game.

Every goal counts as just one, but for Brace his first period goal will hopefully open the floodgates for more. Brace had a goal in each of his first three games during his try-out contract to end the 2012-2013 season, but then went 56 straight games without an AHL goal. The streak covered parts of three seasons and two different organizations. Brace did have goals in the ECHL during that time, 13 in 35 games, but presuming the idea is to stick in the AHL Brace needs to score in this league. According to Bill Ballou of the T&G Brace’s goal had some historical significance; it was the franchise’s 1800th in team history.

With the win WorSharks head coach Roy Sommer passed John Paddock for third in the AHL for career head coaching wins with 590. Next on the list is Hershey Bears legendary coach Frank Mathers with 610. Fred “Bun” Cook is the all-time leader at 636, a number that seems unlikely to be reached this season. Sommer is already the AHL record holder for career losses as a head coach at 607, nearly 100 more than Mathers.

The Worcester Sharks appeared to have their Saturday night contest at the MassMutual Center against Springfield Falcons well in hand entering the third period with a 3-1 lead, but a total last period collapse put the game into overtime and then to a shootout where the WorSharks eventually lost 4-3 to their western Massachusetts rivals. J.P. Anderson was the hard luck loser, stopping 40 of the Falcons 43 shots.

Worcester Sharks forward Freddie Hamilton had two assists in the WorSharks
4-3 shootout loss to Springfield. Hamilton seems to have broken out of his
cold streaking with six points in his last three games.
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we’ll point to AHLlive. The Falcons YouTube channel has a highlight package of the game that inexplicably doesn’t have any highlights in it.

So yesterday we had a brief blurb about rookie referee Alex Garon and what a great job this writer thought he did. That great job continued into the Worcester/Springfield game until 3:55 of the overtime period when Garon called Chris Tierney for the absolute worst interference minor you will ever see. That’s because, even according to Falcons fans, it never happened. It was totally a phantom make-up call for the trip Garon called on Springfield forward T.J. Tynan seconds earlier. That call itself was on the weak side, but at least Tynan actually caused someone to fall down.

In the eight plus seasons the San Jose Sharks have had their AHL affiliate in Worcester head coach Roy Sommer has blamed his players numerous times for losses. It’s to the point of being humorous, especially since Sommer leads the AHL in career head coaching losses by a substantial margin. But for Sommer to do it after Saturday’s game is a travesty. The WorSharks were outshot 14-4 in the final period of regulation, gave up two goals including the tying tally with an extra attacker with under 90 seconds to go, and then almost did the unthinkable and gave up another goal as time was winding down. During the dryscrape before overtime one would expect a head coach in that situation to rally his players and get then ready for the overtime period. Thanks to Worcester season ticket holder Christine Jaffarian, we know what Sommer was doing during the approximately seven minute break:

He was doing nothing. While Falcons head coach Jared Bednar has his team gathered in front of him as he talks to them, Sommer is standing behind his bench with his hands in his pockets saying nothing. The WorSharks then went out and had no shots on goal for the seven minute overtime. This is the guy that’s supposed to be developing players for San Jose. How can anyone with the NHL club even say their satisfied with what Sommer has done. Seriously.
Eventually San Jose will eventually be moving their AHL affiliate out west. Where they put the team is immaterial. Until they straighten out their hockey operations both in the AHL and NHL they won’t be winning anything. You can bet the bank on that.

The Worcester Sharks entered 2015 on three streaks, they’d won two in a row, had gotten points in four in a row, and having lost eight in a row to Manchester. Unfortunately for the WorSharks by game’s the one streak they wanted ended was the only one going after suffering a 2-1 loss to the Monarchs Friday night at the DCU Center for their ninth straight loss to their Atlantic Division rivals. Willie Coetzee scored the only goal for Worcester, while goaltender Troy Grosenick had 31 saves in a losing effort.

Worcester Sharks forward Willie Coetzee had the only goal in the WorSharks 2-1 loss to
the Manchester Monarchs. Coetzee has a goal and two assist in four games since being
signed by the WorSharks just before Christmas. File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we, as usual for home games, look toward the Worcester Sharks YouTube channel.

With the addition of Chris Tierney over the weekend the WorSharks had a forward to scratch, and as a surprise to no one it was Jimmy Bonneau. Andrew Blazek, Taylor Doherty (hand), Eriah Hayes, and Petter Emanuelsson were the other scratches, with Hayes no longer being listed as injured. He took part in warm-ups and is considered ready to play. Word is Doherty is getting closer to returning to the line-up, perhaps in a week to ten days. J.P. Anderson was the back-up goaltender.

One thing that is starting to get old here in Worcester is the attitude of hockey operations in San Jose toward the style of play used by the WorSharks. When asked about it the party line seems to be that the AHL has an undisciplined style of play where players tend to do their own things and not necessarily follow any particular system. Well, the Monarchs play the LA Kings system and Los Angeles has won a Stanley Cup. The same can be same for the Providence Bruins and Boston. It’s also true for Wilkes-Barre and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Of the twelve teams in front of Worcester in the AHL’s Eastern Conference at least eight of them use the same general system as their parent club. So one way or another, thinking AHL teams don’t–and apparently can’t–play their affiliate’s NHL system is just another in a long list of things San Jose gets wrong in their AHL franchise.

Beating a dead horse time: If for over two periods your team is playing like they’ve never taken the ice together before why would you stand there with your hands in your pockets not doing any sort of coaching during the first media timeout of the third period, as WorSharks head coach Roy Sommer did Friday night? There’s no need to answer, Worcester Sharks fans already know.

Referee Alex Garon made his first appearance calling a Worcester Sharks game. Garon is good sized, at least as big if not bigger than most of the players on the ice, and skates real well. More importantly, he called a real good game. This writer doesn’t usually scout officials, but in the extremely small sample size of a single game Garon looked to have all the tools to be a very successful referee.

As expected, there was a scoring change from Tuesday’s 6-2 win over Bridgeport, and again, as expected, it was defenseman Dylan DeMelo losing a point of out change. It was not, however, the change this writer expected to see. Instead of DeMelo’s goal being changed to Oleksuk instead DeMelo lost an assist on Greger Hanson’s goal, with the assist going to Ryan Carpenter instead.

The Worcester Sharks seemed to have finally awakened from their recent offensive slumber as they twice came back from one goal deficits and then finally put the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in the rearview mirror with five unanswered strikes to win Tuesday night’s contest at the DCU Center 6-2. Freddie Hamilton and Dylan DeMelo led the WorSharks with four points each, and Travis Oleksuk added two momentum changing buzzer-beater goals. Konrad Abeltshauser and Adam Burish also had multi point night for Worcester, and goaltender Troy Grosenick had several key saves while the game was still in doubt.

Worcester Sharks forwards Travis Oleksuk (#21) and Freddie Hamilton (#12) both
finally broke out of offensive slumps as their combined six points helped lead
the WorSharks to a 6-2 victory over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For highlights of the game we’ll once again use the Worcester Sharks You-Tube channel.

The WorSharks went with the same line-up as their Saturday victory over Syracuse, with Andrew Blazek, Taylor Doherty (hand), Eriah Hayes (left leg), and Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder) all scratched. J.P. Anderson was in his usual spot as the back-up netminder. Earlier in the day San Jose loaned Chris Tierney back to Worcester, and he’ll be available for the WorSharks games this upcoming weekend.

Worcester got a scare early in the first period when on the penalty kill defenseman DeMelo ended up going head first into the boards as several players scrummed for the puck. DeMelo was on the ice for several moments before play was stopped, but as trainer Matt White got to him DeMelo slowly began to get up and was able to get off the ice and to the dressing room under his own power. Obviously an effects of the collision were minor as DeMelo went on to score a goal and added three assists.

For folks that don’t know, the game between Bridgeport and Worcester originally scheduled to be played at 3pm EST on December 21 had to be postponed because, according to the Sound Tigers, they had bus trouble heading back from a pair of games in Norfolk. The fact that Bridgeport had attempted to reschedule the game to a later time, which the WorSharks could not do due to several players having late night flights in advance of the AHL’s holiday break, and had even released schedules with the game listed at 7pm makes the bus trouble, well, troubling. Reportedly there were also many folks in hockey operations here that predicted that the Sound Tigers would have some sort of issue–most thought it would be a building problem–and that the game wouldn’t be played. While the AHL is “looking into the matter” the WorSharks have offered no comment on the issue. Matt Jacobs, the sound man for Worcester’s games at the DCU Center, made a nice comment the best way he knows how; when Bridgeport took to the ice Jacobs played “Magic Bus” by The Who. It drew noticeable laughs.

When is a hat trick not a hat trick? Well, obviously, when the player doesn’t get credit for three goals in a game. Oleksuk may have had one, but was never announced as having one, and doesn’t think he got one. And yet, he might indeed have one. The late first and second period goals are not in doubt, both clearly belong to Oleksuk. The key is Worcester’s second goal, originally credited to Daniil Tarasov and then switched to DeMelo. DeMelo’s shot was tipped at least once in front of Bridgeport goaltender David Leggio, and this writer tweeted it was DeMelo’s because he was the first to head back to the bench. Despite Oleksuk’s postgame comments saying to the contrary the video, while not crystal clear, does seem to show the puck glancing off Oleksuk in front. Oleksuk actually did clearly put the puck in the net a third time, but a goaltender interference minor to Hamilton negated that score.

Speaking of Leggio, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a goaltender as mad as he was after Adam Burish’s late third period goal. The puck just barely made it over the goal line, but apparently Leggio felt the puck didn’t make it entirely over the goal line and made his opinion very apparent on that reason. Just before the puck drop after the goal referee Garrett Rank hit Leggio with a two minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, and on the ensuing power play after making a save threw the puck out toward center ice. At that point the second referee, Mark Lemelin, had a discussion with Leggio and you didn’t need to be a lip reader to understand that Leggio was still unhappy with the officiating.

The Worcester Sharks were decided underdogs Saturday night at the Onondaga County War Memorial Arena in Syracuse, New York against the streaking Crunch, who had won ten straight and were going for a AHL season leading 11th in a row. After a scoreless opening period the WorSharks managed a 3-0 lead by early in the third period on goals from Matt Taormina, Willie Coetzee, and Evan Trupp. After a fierce Crunch comeback it was Jeremy Langlois’ empty net goal that provided some breathing room in Worcester’s 4-2 victory over Syracuse.

Worcester Sharks goaltender Troy Grosenick with a nice kick save early in
the first period of the WorSharks 4-2 victory over Syracuse. Grosenick
had 23 saves on the night for his 8th win on the season.
Photo courtesy of the SYRACUSE CRUNCH

As expected, prior to the game the WorSharks signed Riley Brace to a PTO. Brace, who played half the year with Worcester last season before being traded, was the leading scorer on the Wheeling Nailers (ECHL) and wasted no time in getting on the score sheet with the primary assist on Coetzee’s late second period goal. It was an interesting journey to Syracuse for Brace, who was in Ottawa for the ECHL Christmas break. While Brace was in Canada his equipment was heading to South Carolina for the Nailers’ game against the Stingrays Saturday night. Brace had to fly from Ottawa to North Charleston, South Carolina to grab his gear, and then fly on to Syracuse via Washington D.C. Brace arrived about lunchtime, but because he hadn’t skated in six days WorSharks head coach Roy Sommer sent Brace out on the ice to get his legs back.

The Onondaga County War Memorial Arena in Syracuse, where portions of the movie Slap Shot was filmed, has non-standard rink dimensions. Back in 1951 when the building opened there was no standard size for hockey rinks, so its 193 foot long length by 85 foot wide size was considered normal back then. When the two-line pass was considered offside the smaller neutral zone was an issue, but these days it’s mostly just a novelty that doesn’t generally impact the game. Now all NHL sized rinks are uniform, being 200′ by 85′.

Add newcomer Willie Coetzee to the WorSharks record books, although not in a good way. Coetzee was the first Worcester Sharks player called for violating the new AHL helmet rule that requires a player that loses his helmet to stop playing and replace it–chin strap included–or go to the bench. Judging by his reaction he had no idea that was the rule. No harm was done as the Crunch didn’t have any good chances on the power play.

At 3:07 of the first period Bryan Lerg was awarded a penalty shot after being grabbed from behind by Syracuse defenseman Luke Witkowski during a partial breakaway. Lerg missed his attempt making the WorSharks just four for 15 in penalty shot attempts in franchise history.

For the second time in three weeks the Worcester Sharks set the franchise record for fastest goal to start a game, and like the last time wasted the quick strike by giving one up just seconds later and then made it worse by allowing another quick goal moments after. Two third period goals put the WorSharks back in the driver’s seat, but a late extra attacker strike by Manchester sent the contest into overtime and then on to the shootout where the Monarchs prevailed for a 5-4 victory over Worcester in a Boxing Day contest at the DCU Center.

Worcester Sharks forward Jeremy Langlois had two goals and an assist for the WorSharks
in their 5-4 shootout loss to the Manchester Monarchs. It was the second multi-goal
game of the season for Langlois. Photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we’ll use the Worcester Sharks Youtube channel.

It was ‘all hands on deck’ again for the WorSharks as they had no healthy scratches. Taylor Doherty (hand), Eriah Hayes (left leg), and Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder) are all on the injury list, and earlier in the day San Jose recalled forward Micheal Haley to replace the suspended John Scott. Despite newcomer Willie Coetzee clearing AHL waivers and being eligible to play that left Worcester with 11 healthy forwards and seven defensemen. Word before the game was the WorSharks were going to bring in another forward and it appears it will be old friend Riley Brace, who was traded away last season in a deal that sent him and Curt Gogol to Iowa for Chad Rao. Brace has been with Wheeling (ECHL) this season.

After Worcester scored on its first shot of the game Manchester then scored on their first two shots, sending WorSharks starting netminder Troy Grosenick to the bench and back-up J.P. Anderson into the game. From this writer’s perch just in front of the press box it appeared the first shot Anderson saw went just wide off the post, but the radio call by home town announcer Eric Lundquist seemed to indicate something else may have happened. My view, from the redline, didn’t offer the best angle so I asked Sharkspage minion Tyler Lowell, who sits behind the goal Worcester shoots at twice what he saw of the play. His smile gave it away but he indicated he was unsure. A WorSharks fan who was sitting right behind Anderson, and who asked not to be identified, says the puck clearly beat Anderson and went through the net. A rarity indeed, but apparently what happened.

It’s been said numerous times by WorSharks head coach Roy Sommer that this team will only go as far as goaltender Grosenick can carry them. Right now Grosenick is carrying them to the basement of the AHL and he knows it. “I feel terrible,” Grosenick said to Bill Ballou of the Worcester Telegram. “Every player on our team deserved to win this game except for me. Even with a D-minus performance from me, we would have won, and I didn’t do that. There’s no hiding from it — I haven’t been myself lately, and this is as bad as it gets. It’s rock bottom. I’ve got to look inside myself and find a way to turn it around.” Grosenick made just 10 saves on 14 shots against Friday after going oh-for-two early in the first, being pulled, and then going back in to start the second period. It continued in the shootout where he looked like a practice goalie allowing two goals on three attempts.

Readers will notice there was no write-up for Sundays scheduled game for Worcester in Bridgeport. That’s because the game was postponed when the home team Sound Tigers were unable to make it back to Connecticut from Norfolk due to, they claim, their bus breaking down. Ballou has the specifics with Game postponed, but Sharks don’t believe Sound Tigers’ story that was published Sunday, and so far the AHL has been silent on the issue as to any investigation of the issue. It’s pretty clear Bridgeport didn’t want to play the game and made sure it wasn’t played, so now it’s up to AHL president Dave Andrews to make sure this situation is set right, which in this writer’s opinion means the Sound Tigers should be forced to forfeit the game.

The Worcester Sharks offensive woes this season are well documented, but the WorSharks did manage to find the net enough times to overcome both a one and two goal deficit to twice tie the game Saturday night in Portland against the Pirates only to stumble in overtime and drop a 4-3 contest at the Cross Insurance Arena. Micheal Haley, Bryan Lerg, and Adam Burish all scored for Worcester. Troy Grosenick, who looked shaky at times in net, had 19 saves in the loss.

Worcester Sharks captain Bryan Lerg had a goal and an assist in the WorSharks 4-3
overtime loss Saturday in Portland. The goal was Lerg's second on the season, and
first since Veterans Day. He has points in just 7 of 27 games so far this season.
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

It was ‘all hands on deck’ for the WorSharks Saturday night as all 18 healthy skaters took to the ice. Adding Eriah Hayes (left leg) to the injury list after being checked into the Manchester bench door Friday night left the WorSharks with 11 healthy forwards and 7 available defensemen. After Friday’s game against the Monarchs the team went north to Portland and Hayes was sent back to Worcester to recover. He’s already been ruled out for Sunday’s contest at Bridgeport. Taylor Doherty (hand) and Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder) remain on the injured list. Not on the injured list but certainly limited in his role due to an injury is WorSharks enforcer Jimmy Bonneau. Fan favorite Bonneau wasn’t injured in a bout but instead by a non-called high stick Friday night that left quite the mark on Bonneau’s nose. J.P. Anderson was the backup goaltender once again Saturday but good money is betting he’ll play in Bridgeport Sunday afternoon.

Need to get serious here for a moment…you’ll note that this writer has not in any way, shape, or form covered the news of the San Jose Sharks eventual relocation of their AHL franchise to California on this blog. This is intentional, not because of any sort of denial that it won’t happen but because like when the Worcester IceCats left for Peoria ten years ago I am part of a group of people that will once again try and bring AHL hockey back to Worcester. Because I have a vested interest in some of the related issues involved to the currently called “AHL West” movement I’ve decided to not cover any aspect of the story due to what I see as a potential conflict of interest. I do, however, need to get something on the record and this is the time to do so.
On Thursday of this week WorSharks beat report Bill Ballou of the Worcester Telegram wrote a story about the impending move which contained information not reported elsewhere before; that the San Jose Sharks were thinking of putting their AHL franchise in the SAP Center short term if a suitable home for them couldn’t be found elsewhere. The next day a blog called Mayor’s Manner “broke” the same news, but didn’t give Ballou credit for the story. I know who Ballou got that information from and how solid it is, and I know none of the people involved would speak or have ever spoken to anyone from Mayor’s Manner.
In my opinion credibility is not just the end result, it’s also how you got there. There are lots of bloggers that are more than happy to give credit where credit is due. Obviously, some do not. You’ll note that here on Sharkspage we always give credit when information comes from outside sources. It doesn’t take too much investigation to see others don’t do the same. Breaking someone else’s news isn’t reporting. I know I’m just a hack but at least I don’t try to fake out readers. I’ll let others decide if that’s what Mayor’s Manner did in this case.

The WorSharks did not have a morning skate Saturday in Portland, deciding instead to have a closed door team meeting. During the radio pregame show Worcester Sharks assistant coach Ryan Mougenel did his best Bill Belichick impersonation and didn’t answer anything about the meeting at all. In a prerecorded intermission interview Bonneau was a little more informative about it, saying it was a real good meeting where some folks got some stuff off their chests about how things are going.

It looked like Daniil Tarasov was headed toward a big game as he had five shots in the first period, including two real nice chances. He ended up with just one shot over the remainder of the game, took a silly penalty in the overtime period, and was on the ice for the extra time goal against. So much for the big game.

There are always complaints about the AHL schedule, and this weekend the Bridgeport Sound Tigers have a right to be unhappy about it. While the WorSharks are bussing back to Worcester after their Saturday game for a night in their own beds the Sound Tigers are on the road from Norfolk, Virginia after a pair against the Admirals. The 3pm EST start Sunday in Bridgeport comes pretty early after that 7.5 hour overnight bus ride.

The Worcester Sharks are having a hard time doing a couple of things lately: scoring goals and beating the Manchester Monarchs. Knowing that it wasn’t great news to see a trip to New Hampshire on the schedule for this weekend and the results of Friday night’s contest at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester were never in doubt as the WorSharks lost 4-1 to their division rivals to go 0-4 on the season against the Monarchs. Since the beginning of last season Manchester is 12-1-3 vs Worcester.

Worcester Sharks forward Jeremy Langlois had the lone goal in the WorSharks 4-1 loss
to the Manchester Monarchs. Worcester is now 0-4 vs Manchester on the season.
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights, such as they are, we’ll use the Monarchs YouTube channel.

Scratches for the WorSharks were Andrew Blazek, Taylor Doherty (hand) and Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder). J.P. Anderson was the backup goaltender. Word from Bill Ballou of the Worcester Telegram says Doherty is practicing with the team and could return fairly soon. Worcester broadcaster Eric Lindquist didn’t seem that optimistic during the pregame show. Emanuelsson indicated to some fans earlier this month that he was returning home to Sweden for Christmas, and has already done so. Latest word on his injury is the same as the older news, that he’s not close to returning. The WorSharks might add another to the injury list as Eriah Hayes was injured in the first period after being checked into an open door at the Monarchs bench during the first period by Manchester winger Josh Gratton. Hayes had to be helped to the Worcester dressing room when he couldn’t put any weight on his left leg.

There were a couple of transactions over the past week, and another we’ll have to wait a few days to finalize. San Jose reassigned Rylan Schwartz to the Allen Americans, the ECHL affiliate of the organization. Worcester, in turn, signed Greger Hanson of the same Americans to a PTO. The WorSharks also signed another player to a try-out, forward Willie Coetzee. After the transaction was announced it was removed from the listings, so this writer was a tad confused as to what was going on. As usual it was Ballou that shed some light on the issue: Coetzee played in Austria this season prior to the ECHL, so he needs to clear AHL waivers. The rule is identical to the NHL version, but in a brain cramp moment I never applied it to Coetzee.

There was one fight in the contest when Worcester tough-guy Jimmy Bonneau went after Gratton for checking Hayes into the open door. It wasn’t much of a fight as Bonneau hit Gratton and Gratton hit the ice. Chalk up another TKO win for the Bone Saw.

With Worcester playing in Portland Saturday night the WorSharks decided to head north to Maine after the game instead of back to Worcester. The trip saves the team a couple of hours of travel time and a bit of stress from having to get to the DCU Center in downtown Worcester to make the trip on the Saturday before Christmas.

Was looking through old postings recently trying to locate some information and came across a post that essentially said “can’t score, can’t play defense, and the special teams are terrible” from last season. And one from 2012-13. And another from 2011-12. Seems the players change but the problems don’t. I wonder what (or who) might be the cause of that.

The Worcester Sharks are still having problems putting the puck into the net, so rookie goaltender J.P. Anderson took matters into his own hands and made the WorSharks lone goal by Micheal Haley stand up as the Worcester Sharks snapped their three game losing streak with a 1-0 victory over the Portland Pirates Sunday afternoon at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts in front of 3,028 fans.

Worcester Sharks rookie goaltender J.P. Anderson had 26 saves Sunday afternoon against
the Portland Pirates for his first professional shutout. He also became the first right
catching goaltender in Worcester hockey history to register a shutout.
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For the video highlights we once again use the Worcester Sharks YouTube channel.

Worcester Sharks head coach Roy Sommer made just one change in the line-up from Saturday, inserting Anderson in goal to replace Troy Grosenick. Andrew Blazek, Taylor Doherty (hand) and Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder) were the scratches.

The goal by Micheal Haley was originally credited to WorSharks captain Bryan Lerg. From this writer’s perch it was obviously Haley’s, and the players on the ice knew it too as Haley led the team for the congratulatory skate by the bench. It took until the early parts of the third period for the goal change to be announced.

Every Worcester forward except Jimmy Bonneau had a shot on goal in the game but somehow two of the WorSharks better offensive defensemen, Dylan DeMelo and Taylor Fedun, didn’t have a shot. Eriah Hayes led all players with six shots on goal.

There was a scary moment in the second period when while diving for a loose puck along the near sideboards Adam Burish was accidentally kicked in the head/neck area by a falling Portland defender. Burish got up slowly as the play headed back into the Worcester end and immediately went down the tunnel after reaching the bench. Based on the actions of WorSharks trainer Matt White it didn’t appear that Burish was cut, and when Burish reappeared on the bench a few moments later it was obvious all was well.

Despite the power play goal Worcester’s play with the extra man has been nothing less than terrible lately. After having five power play opportunities without a shot Saturday night against Manchester–total elapsed time was 7:56–Worcester went another full two minute power play and then 1:14 of an abbreviated man advantage before registering a power play shot on goal against Portland. Oddly, their next shot with the man advantage came 1:02 into their third power play chance and went in for the only goal of the game.

Conversely, the WorSharks penalty kill has been decent recently in giving up just a single goal in the last 11 chances against. That includes a real nice kill of a five on three situation Sunday where Portland didn’t have a good scoring chance and then the Pirates were forced to hook down Fedun when he grabbed a loose puck in the neutral zone after leaving the box when his minor was over. Perhaps their best kill over that span was midway through the third period Sunday when Matt Taormina was sent off for hooking. Most of the first half of that penalty kill was spent in Portland’s zone, and while Worcester didn’t have a good shorthanded chance it did wind a lot of time off the clock.

The Worcester Sharks continue to have offensive troubles, but on Saturday night against the Manchester Monarchs they reached a new low by going 0-9 on the power play and managing just a single shot in the third period in a 2-1 loss to the Monarchs. Freddie Hamilton had the lone WorSharks goal 1:02 into the contest, and the total lack of offense wasted a 27 save performance from goaltender Troy Grosenick.

Worcester Sharks forward Rylan Schwartz attempts to stop after his tip attempt
of a centering feed goes wide of Manchester goaltender Jean-Francois Berube during
the WorSharks 2-1 loss to the Monarchs. Photo courtesy of THE WORCESTER SHARKS

Scratches for the WorSharks were Andrew Blazek, Taylor Doherty (hand) and Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder). After Friday’s defensive debacle against the Hartford Wolf Pack Worcester summoned Nick Jones from the Indy Fuel (ECHL). Jones was with the Fuel as they were taking on the Florida Everblades, and with direct flights from Florida to Worcester he arrived fairly early in the day. He recorded his first AHL point with the secondary assist on Hamilton’s goal.

It looked like we might see a true heavyweight bout as the WorSharks had enforcer Jimmy Bonneau dressed and Manchester had Paul Bissonnette (AKA BizNasty2point0) in the line-up, but the closest the two came to dropping the gloves was them grabbing on and laughing at each other while Worcester captain Bryan Lerg and Manchester captain Vincent LoVerde wrestled behind the Monarchs net. The game did see one battle, and the fact it involved Manchester’s Andy Andreoff isn’t surprising. What is shocking is it was Konrad Abeltshauser that dropped the gloves with him. It was the first pro fight for Abeltshauser, and he didn’t look all that bad despite Andreoff getting the edge.

It was “IceCats Night” Saturday with the WorSharks wearing jerseys modeled after the 1994-95 inaugural IceCats jerseys. With the IceCats wearing the blue road inaugural season jerseys in their last game ever Worcester went with the home whites for the occasion. In this writer’s not so humble opinion, they looked pretty sharp.

With all the festivities surrounding “IceCats night” I neglected to note what the even strength lines were, and of course this is the game head coach Roy Sommer spends fiddling with them so guessing it tough. We’ll just forgo them for today.